LAHORE, Aug 2: Justice Mohammad Akhtar Shabbir of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed Lesco’s Baghbanpura sub-divisional officer to appear in the court on Thursday to explain as to why the power supply to a home and a shop was suspended apparently without a cogent reason.

The court also directed the SDO to submit a report on the procedure adopted for removing the electricity meters of the home and the shop of the petitioner.

The court was proceeding in a writ petition through which Maqsood Ahmad had submitted that the power supply to his ancestral home and his shop was disrupted under the orders of the executive engineer and the SDO although the electricity bills had been regularly paid till the last month.

The petitioner submitted that his father Mehr Mohammad Jahangir defaulted on the payment of Rs4.7 million in electricity charges for his steel industry in the area. He was arrested first in 1998 and remained behind the bars for 40 days, and then for 10 days in 2001 on the charge of non-payment of electricity dues. He submitted that his father was shocked by the humiliation and first suffered a heart attack and then ultimately died in 2003.

According to the petitioner, his father had sold the industry before he had died. Later, he and four of his brothers started living with their grandfather and ran their shop to earn livelihood.

He stated that Lesco employees came to their house the other day and removed the power meter. The next day, the staff repeated the illegal act at his shop.